Tulips

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Now What?

Christmas
is over. The presents are unwrapped, the wrapping paper thrown away or
recycled, the family and guests have all gone home. We have even passed
Epiphany, the commemoration of the wise men arriving to worship Jesus.

If you
are like me, sometime in the past week or so you began taking down the
Christmas decorations, packing them carefully away for next year. I hope to
finish that up soon.

I happen
to have several nativity sets that I put up every year. One is merely to look
at. The other two are for children to play with. As I was putting the pieces
away yesterday I of course came to the baby Jesus. For the past number of
weeks, the focus of our devotions and worship has been on the incredible
mystery of the incarnation – God taking on human flesh, that of a helpless
infant no less.

And now,
with all the celebrations over, I was packing up the baby Jesus until next
year. That struck me as odd.

As I
packed away the symbol I wondered about the person of Christ, now risen and
seated at the right hand of the Father. What would I do with Jesus this year?

For that
matter, how do I even know what to do with him? There seems to be a lot of
confusion about this. You see, its fairly easy to worship the newborn king. The
infant Jesus seems helpless and tame, his omni-attributes veiled beneath the chubby
baby cheeks.

But what
about the Jesus who rebukes evil spirits, tells the woman at the well to sin no
more, and accuses his followers of being an “unbelieving and perverse
generation”?

And what about
the Jesus who instead of proclaiming peace on earth as our Christmas cards and
carols proclaim, tells the people: “Do you think I came to bring peace on
earth? No, I tell you, but division.”

Or how
about the Jesus who reminds us that the cost of following him is rejection by
the world? (Luke 9:23-24; John 15:18-19)

What will
I do with all of Jesus – not just the warm and fuzzy parts – this year?